Froggy wrote:you just listed my biggest problem with this concept. The first movie being the first 2 books, and the Waste Lands being on TV. IMO, Waste Lands is the best book of the 7, and I would really hate to see a watered down version of it on TV. Now, if it works out where it is a good thing that they are able to take the extra time from a TV series to really capture the minor details, that would be great. But i think it would lose the epicness that a full movie would have.

I agree with you. Besides the 1st book, Waste Lands is also my fave. I'd love for the Waste Lands to get an entire season on tv (If it was HBO or AMC), I'm not really sold on NBC though...

A couple other problems I see:

they are probably going to go for a PG13 rating to get more of an audience

you would think they would want a name actor to carry this thing, is a big name actor going to settle for 2 season of tv?

2 seasons of TV and 3 feature films.

I agree that this has the potential to be so bad it's unwatchable but with that you also get the potential for it be to one of the best adaptation events in film/tv history.

The more I think about this, the more I can't get past the idea that Roland is an old, old, old man. I mean, we're supposed to think he's been searching for the towers for maybe hundreds of years (time is odd, there). I don't see how any actor in his 40s or 50s could really pull off that kind of look.

What about Lance Henriksen? He's 70 now and has a very weathered face. He has that gritty, world weary persona. If they decide to go with a "name" actor though, I think they'll really fowl this up.

Hockeynut! wrote:The more I think about this, the more I can't get past the idea that Roland is an old, old, old man. I mean, we're supposed to think he's been searching for the towers for maybe hundreds of years (time is odd, there). I don't see how any actor in his 40s or 50s could really pull off that kind of look.

What about Lance Henriksen? He's 70 now and has a very weathered face. He has that gritty, world weary persona. If they decide to go with a "name" actor though, I think they'll really fowl this up.

Nah. He's more like THOUSANDS of years old but there is no doubt in my mind that this is exactly what Stephen King thinks Roland looks like:

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: The Dark Tower is such a dense series — did you always think it needed more than a single movie or TV show treatment?STEPHEN KING: I always thought it would take more than a single movie, but I didn’t see this solution coming — i.e., several movies and TV series. It was Ron [Howard] and Akiva [Goldsman]‘s idea. Once it was raised, I thought at once it was the solution.

What about Ron Howard and NBC makes them a good fit for the franchise?When working as a director, Ron is very similar to the way I work as a writer. We both tell honest stories that have (I flatter myself) style and substance but not a lot of show-offy frills.

In a perfect world, who would play Roland? Eddie? Susannah? Jake?The Twilight cast, of course! Just kidding. I haven’t got as far as casting in my thoughts, but when I write about Susannah Dean, I always kind of see Angela Bassett in my mind’s eye. Mostly I just want good people in those parts. Ron Howard will find them, I’m sure.

And who would you want to play?I’d love to be the voice of Blaine the Mono.

There’s a lot of blood in the series — how much is the TV series going to be censored? It likely would have been easier to join forces with a network without restrictions, à la HBO, no?I don’t see that as a problem at all! We’ll have just enough latitude to make a great series. I’ve worked in network TV before, and every time I was squeezed a little, it just made me look for creative solutions. Besides, I always like to play in the biggest auditorium available!

Ron Howard was on Stern this morning talking about it. He said nothing is definite yet, but he was hoping the tv show would work. Also said Viggo and Bardem are in for the running, but there are more than that.

Knowing, as you said, that the characters involved eventually die, it will definitely ruin a little bit of it ofr me. I am generally not a fan of prequels/"midquels", and I don't think this will be an exception.